When Teen Wolf premiered on MTV, the series began with a focus on werewolves. As the series grew, more supernatural creatures, including a larger variety of shape shifters, were introduced to the series. One of those shape shifters was the werecoyote Malia Tate.
Malia, played by Shelley Hennig, joined the series in season three. When she joined, she helped open up Scott McCall’s circle of friends beyond the people he’d gone to school with for years. Her blunt attitude and tendency to favor her own survival over everyone else gave a new dynamic to the series. Some fans might have missed these details about her though. Here are 10 things about Malia that only superfans would know.
Malia’s Age Is A Continuity Error
At one point in the series, Malia’s birth certificate makes it on screen. It reveals her birthday as November 28, 1998. Given when the series is set, that’s not exactly possible. If Malia was actually born in 1998, when she emerges from her coyote form as a teenager, that would mean she's only 13 years old.
If this were the case, it would make her subsequent relationship with Stiles and integration into Scott McCall’s pack a little awkward. Fans have chalked the year up to being a continuity error on the part of the production team, making it more likely that Malia was born a few years earlier that the date shown on the birth certificate.
She Wasn’t Born Malia Tate
Though the name used for her throughout the series is Malia Tate, that wasn’t her birth name. In fact, her parents likely didn’t get the chance to name her at all. Instead, when Thalia Hale erased Peter’s memory and took her from Corinne, she was just Baby Hale before the Tate family adopted her.
Malia never uses the Hale family name in the series though, preferring to keep her connection to the family she knew. The only time it’s used as her surname is when her name appears on a list of subjects in the Deadpool.
She Is A Sagittarius
It’s more than likely a coincidence, but Malia ends up with an astrological sign that’s very in line with her personality on Teen Wolf. Because her birthday is at the end of November, she was born under the star sign Sagittarius.
Sagittarius is also known as the Archer and is depicted by a centaur wielding a bow and arrow. Half man, half animal, centaurs were known as ancient philosophers and thinkers who could see the bigger picture. Malia is someone who always wants to see the bigger picture, focused more on survival as a whole than on smaller pieces of a plan. This star sign is also known for being blunt and to the point.
Her Love For Shorts Doesn’t Make Sense
When first introduced to the series, Malia spent a little time in Eichen House issued pajamas while the asylum workers tried to get rid of her animal instincts. While there, she formed her connection with Stiles, and revealed something to him. Since she wasn’t living as a coyote anymore, she always found herself cold without her fur.
That’s a pretty interesting bit of character information, but it also means her wardrobe choices for the first year of her appearances don’t make a whole lot of sense. Once she starts attending Beacon Hills High, Malia spends her first year of appearances almost exclusively in shorts. It would make more sense for her to be bundled up instead of exposed.
Shelley Hennig Didn’t Audition For Malia
Most of the Teen Wolf cast members had to go through a lengthy audition process to join the series. Shelley Hennig, who played Malia for the last three seasons of the series, did not.
Instead, Hennig was already working on another series for MTV. She explained to Collider that after she did the series Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, the casting director reached out to her about another role for MTV. Hennig was intrigued when she was told Malia would be the only coyote on a series of werewolves. It was supposed to be a guest spot, but it turned into a regualr series role.
She Is A Natural Werecoyote
Many of the shapeshifters in the series were not supernatural by birth. Instead, they were bitten by other supernatural creatures at some point in their lives. That wasn’t the case for Malia.
Though Malia wasn’t raised in the Hale family, she was supernatural from birth. She didn’t inherit her father’s (Peter Hale) abilities, but instead her mother. While her father was a werewolf, her mother, Corinne, was a werecoyote, who didn’t like that her daughter inherited some of her power when she was born. Malia just didn’t know she had those powers for the first eight years of her life.
Her First Appearance In The Series Is As A Coyote
Malia is unique compared to a lot of the Teen Wolf characters because her first appearance in the show wasn’t as a human being. Instead, it was as a coyote.
When Sheriff Stilinski got the lowdown on the supernatural goings on in Beacon Hills, he began investigating unsolved cases with a possible supernatural angle. One of those cases involved a missing girl. As Scott and Stiles began to help him investigate, they ran into a coyote in the Beacon Hills Preserve. That coyote had distinctive glowing blue eyes, making her first appearance in the episode “Anchors,” and would later be revealed as Malia herself.
Malia’s First Transformation Was Fatal
Since Malia wasn’t raised with the Hales, and had no idea about her supernatural state. Malia didn’t know that instances of extreme stress could trigger a transformation. On a full moon, after arguing with her mother and sister, Malia was sitting in the back seat of her mother’s car when her biological mother stepped into the road and pulled a gun on the car.
The stress of the experience triggered Malia’s first transformation into a coyote. It was so unexpected that she didn’t know how to handle it. Her coyote form attacked her mother and sister, and she lived the next eight years as a coyote in fear and shame, feeling responsible for their deaths.
Her Name Is Hawaiian
Not all of the names in Teen Wolf have origins that relate to the characters’ place in the series, but one of the meanings of Malia’s name does. Her name comes from a Hawaiian word whose original meaning is actually unknown.
One of the modern theories for the name meaning includes “a wish for a child.” Since the Tates named her, Malia’s name could have had that special meeting for them.
Shelley Hennig Ended The Series The Way Malia Began It
Though Malia’s first appearance in the show was as a coyote, when she first appeared as a human, Shelley Hennig had a bit of an experience. Her first time on the show involved Scott McCall’s Alpha Roar waking up Malia’s human side. As a result, Malia woke up, completely nude, in the middle of a group of people.
Hennig’s first scene for the series wasn’t much different than her last scene in the series when it came to filming. She also had to appear nude with Tyler Posey’s Scott McCall. It wasn’t her last time on screen, but it was the last Teen Wolf scene Hennig filmed as Malia.